[Rhizome]

I remember someone posted a link to that badger song a while ago. I showed it to my son not realizing that he'd become sucked into it like he did. He demanded to see it over and over and then ran around the house flapping his arms up and down singing: "Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM." It was hilarious. I encouraged it because it was so enjoyable to see him do it. We had him sing the song at family paries. They all curled over in pangs of painful laughter.
Then, I'm standing in front of my "Introduction to Physical Anthropology" course, just jam packed with students as it was the beginning of the term. Class hasn't started yet, and I'm sipping some water and writting the day's agenda on the board when I hear from the corner of the room someone singing: "Badger badger badger badger..." I whirl around and after a few glances here and there see the singer. I erupted into obnoxiously embarrasing laughter and spurt water all over the floor in front of me. Luckily I didn't spray the front row of students.
Then, of course, I had to sit there and explain what was so funny. So I'm trying to describe this rediculous cartoon about badgers and snakes and mushrooms, flapping my arms up and down and singing just a bit of the song for effect. I was a few minutes into class time already, struggling to get away from this situation I was finding increasingly unbearable. When I'm at the peak of embarrassment, realizing that nobody in the room but the person who sang has any appreciation for how ludicriously entertaining the whole thing is, I notice someone standing in the doorway. It was my dean, looking in on my class to see how the new teacher was doing.
So, I start saying, "Yes, well, mushrooms have been a part of the human diet for tens of thousands of years. Most animals tend to avoid mushrooms entirely, due to thier poisonous nature and the creature's inability to distinguish between one kind of mushroom and another. Having the mental plasticity to learn about one's environment through parental training, made distinguishing eadible from inedible mushrooms possible."ÂÂThe students began to look at each other with that kind of expression that suggests they are in the presence of someone on the edge or well over it. They began to whisper to each other and look around the room. Crazed already, I felt compelled to continue: "And thus, we can see how mushrooms, and other extraction intensive food resources, have played a key role in the evolution of human mental faculties..."
At that point I saw him walk from the doorway back down the hall out of the corner of my eye. I didn't want to stare at the observing boss after all. When he left I hurled my head down into my hands in shame. The class, at least a large part of it, must have realized what was going on. Because as soon as I covered my face like that, they erupted into some of theÂmost boisterious laughter I've ever experienced in a classroom.